GLP-1s Linked to Increased Risk of Bone and Joint Disorders

GLP-1s Linked to Increased Risk of Bone and Joint Disorders  https://ift.tt/HvKAUgx

The appetite-suppressing drugs decrease a person's intake of food and nutrients, which can impact bone health and lead to osteoporosis and gout

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NEED TO KNOW

• New research has found that GLP-1 medications may be linked to an increased risk of developing gout and osteoporosis 
• People on GLP-1 medications “decrease their intake of food and nutrients,” Dr. John Horneff told NBC News of his research 
• He found that GLP-1 medications may be “nearly a doubling of the risk of having some sort of bone mineral density issue at five years”

Wildly popular GLP-1 medications — which work in the brain to impact satiety and appetite — have been linked to an increased risk of developing the bone conditions osteoporosis and gout.  

“People are taking these medications, and obviously there’s a tremendous amount of upside,” Dr. John Horneff, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, told NBC News. “But with that, they start to decrease their intake of food and nutrients.”

He was inspired to look into how GLP-1 medications may impact bone health after seeing an increased number of patients with injuries. Dr. Horneff then researched five years’ worth of medical records for more than 146,000 adults with both obesity and Type 2 diabetes. According to the research, which is being presented at American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ annual meeting, Dr. Horneff found that 4% of GLP-1 users developed osteoporosis (compared to 3% of those not on GLP-1s), and 7.4% on the medication developed gout (compared to 6.6%).

Stock image of someone getting a foot X-ray
Credit: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty

“It’s not huge,” Horneff said. “But within that data that was put in there, you even saw nearly a doubling of the risk of having some sort of bone mineral density issue at five years.”

Gout, Verywell Health explains, is when uric acid crystals form in a joint, most commonly the big toe. Osteoporosis, the outlet explains, is a disease where the bones become weaker and thinner. Both conditions can be impacted by diet.

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Although the decrease in nutrients may be behind the increased risk, Horneff has another theory.

 “It’s the same idea like when we always hear about astronauts going up into space and they’re in a gravity-zero environment for too long,” Horneff told the outlet. 

“There’s nothing forcing their bones to kind of hold their weight anymore. And a lot of those astronauts come back with low bone density. So the thought is, these patients, their skeleton was used to kind of maintaining one frame, and then all of a sudden, that’s being decreased.”